Book 1, Chapter 15 Notes from Tender is the Night

Tender is the Night Book 1, Chapter 15

In the taxi, Rosemary demanded that Dick tell her what it was he was joking about giving up, and Dick said that he was a doctor of medicine, and that nothing was wrong - he just didn't feel like practicing. Rosemary put her face up as if to be kissed, and Dick responded by rubbing his cheek against hers and telling her that she was a lovely child. She then smiled and told him that she was in love with him and Nicole, and that she couldn't even talk to anybody about him because she didn't want anyone to know how wonderful they were. Dick had heard this many times - even the formula was the same. She then kissed him and lay on his arm and sighed, telling him that she had decided to give him up, since she loved him so much.

She was now crying, and he consoled her by telling her that she was beautiful and grand, and that everything she did was grand. He kissed her again, without enjoying it. "He knew that there was passion there, but there was no shadow of it in her eyes or on her mouth; there was a faint spray of champagne on her breath. She clung nearer desperately and once more he kissed her and was chilled by the innocence of her kiss, by the glance that at the moment of contact looked beyond him out into the darkness of the night, the darkness of the world." Book 1, Chapter 15, pg. 63

Her room was diagonally across from his, and as a birthday present, she asked Dick to come in for a minute. When he did, she astonished him by telling him to make love to her. He declined by saying that it was the champagne talking, and that they should forget the whole incident. When she insisted, he asked if she had thought about Nicole. To this, she answered that Nicole would never know. When he said that he loved Nicole, she answered by saying that he could love more than one person. Finally, he said that he didn't love her, and when she said that she didn't expect that, he simply stated that she was too young, and that there would be much to teach her.

He sat down next to her and was confused - not about the ethics of the matter, because it was clearly impossible, but simply confused, and the strength of his balance was suddenly absent. Dick said that they should drop the whole thing out of the picture and left. Rosemary got up and started brushing her hair. She gave it the usual hundred and fifty strokes. Then she gave it another one hundred and fifty strokes. Then she just kept brushing until her arms ached, and then she changed arms and just kept brushing.